“Ye said we were gonna go t’Diagon Alley, pa!” Noah Pratt grumbled as he threw himself into an armchair next to his Dad’s desk with all of the drama of a teenager who’d been told that no, he couldn’t do anything he damn well wanted. Today, he had to sit in an office and not show his Dad up. Those had been the instructions, as the family had been frog marched through the atrium of the ministry of magic. Head Auror Pratt had been battling with a fussy toddler in his arms as he’d recited today’s rules.

“Ye won’t leave me office, ye won’t speak t’me colleagues,” ye won’t bloody breathe Noah had found himself thinking as he’d gripped the hands of his younger brother and sister.

“Tomorrow.” Edward Pratt replied, kicking his office door shut with his foot and finally letting his fussy 2-year-old free to run around the desk like a lunatic. The other young lunatic, Charlie began to chase her, giggling. At 5, Charlie had far more balance, stability and speed than 2-year-old Brooklynn.

“She’s gone, ‘ent she?” Ed’s head span from watching his two youngest to meet the blue eyed gaze of 13 year old Noah Pratt. The boy may have been doing atrociously in his exams at Hogwarts, but he was clever and astute. With pursed lips, the Auror folded his arms. From the corner of the room, he felt Natasha’s eyes on him, so similar to her mother. Too similar to her mother.

“Yes.” Eddie finally confirmed, uncomfortable. It wasn’t a conversation he wanted with his children. They’d only recently started to accept Alina as his wife and now she’d left. Now he was about to go through the processes of a second divorce and his kids would have to deal with the fallout. Merlin knew what their mother had been whispering in their ears.

“Mum says she was a re-bind flossy.” Natasha muttered as she vacated the corner of the office and came to her father, wrapping her arms around him to give him a hug. Ed’s arms came down to meet the growing girl and he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Maybe yer mam’s right, Tash.” he softly said, “Normally is.”

It was only a few days before that Alina had left and, in truth, Ed didn’t blame her. Quincy had struggled with such an absent husband for years and his work had driven an unfixable wedge between them. Alina had been forced to compete with his work, 4 children that weren’t her own and a foreign country. He’d asked too much of her.

Unfortunately, to add salt to the wounds, the ex-wife who was normally right and had clearly predicted such a result from the wizard’s quick marriage, had no sympathy. Today Alina had agreed to watch the children while Ed worked. His wife vanishing had made no difference to Quincy because she had plans that she was unwilling to rearrange. He would, she’d told him, have to deal with it. That was how he’d ended up in his office with four Pratt children and no idea how he would get anything done.

It only took five minutes to realise that his attempts to do anything were futile when Brooklynn smacked her head on the desk and began to wail loudly, piercing his ears, the sound no doubt making its way into the office beyond the abnormally closed door.

Irritated and frustrated with his younger siblings, Noah launched himself from the chair and made for the door. He opened it and left.
“Noah! Merlin’s balls!” Grabbing his little girl, Ed held her close, and made for the door himself. “Noah! Tash, get yer bloody brother!” Several aurors looked up at the sound of their leader yelling but right now Ed didn’t care as Natasha ran from the office herself, bashing into a passing staff member with a coffee. “Flora!” Flora was soft. Flora would sort it. “Flora!”

As Fauna settled into her cubicle with her morning coffee, a fresh muffin, and a stack of reports to review, she heard a commotion. A strange commotion, even for Level Two. The little pitter patter and scuffing of small feet, the question of a young boy, the grumble from a grown man - ok, that was more usual. She popped her head up.

Eddie Pratt, Head Auror, was heading into his office with a whole brood of children. He had one in his arms, one toddling after him, an older daughter skipping around him in circles, and the oldest boy shuffling his feet.

Fauna's eyes bugged out of her head. Slowly, without making a sound, she lowered into her seat. She adjusted her chair to inch down. She thought about spelling it to sink down farther.

Fauna reached a hand over the stack of papers and turned off her lamp.

Children! What was he thinking? Did he not have child care? She hunched over her reports, crumbs sticking to parchment as she finished her muffin. She cringed when someone greeted her by name. Didn't they know?! Didn't they know today was a bad day to be a lowly trainee, and a young female trainee, at that?

A child let out a wail. Fauna did not look up. Doors opened. Fauna did not look up. Pratt shouted. Fauna hunkered down.

"Flora! ...Flora!"

Fauna cursed. Bueller was not here today!

She rose in one swift movement, gripping her cup of coffee. She pushed her chair in hard.

"Two years and he still can't get my name right," Fauna grumbled as she shuffled toward his office. "How hard is it to remember? Fauna. Two syllables. Blake is even easier." Fauna turned the corner. "One bloody-  oof!"

A boy barreled into her, and Fauna's cup of coffee clattered to the floor and bounced. Coffee splashed all over her boots, which still bore the remnants of previous coffee spills. Her cup remained intact. Every smart trainee knew to either carry paper cups or charm their mugs on Level Two.

"Are you alright?" Her annoyed expression softened at the sight of the young teenager. Poor child, spawn of Pratt!

"I'm sorry, I'll just-" she waved her wand to scourgify the coffee off her boots, the boy, and the floor.

"Are you, um, related to the forgetful man hollering his head off?"

The girl running after him stopped, looked at her, and giggled. How many were there again? Fauna worried. She tried to remember their names.

"Norman, is it?" She looked at the boy. "And Natalie?" Fauna glanced questioningly at the girl, then made to usher them back to the Head Auror's office.

"Pratt?" She called out loudly into the hallway.

His Dad was yelling across the office full of tiny cubicles and pointless half walls, the man’s annoying voice carrying the distance between father and son but Noah didn’t stop and turn around. He knew what he would see if he did; one angry blond middle aged man with a squawking baby in his arms and an obsession with work. He only just had over a week before he went back to Hogwarts and his bloody dad had to bloody work on the day he was supposed to bloody well be a dad. It was bloody typical!

"Two years and he still can't get my name right," the voice barely registered as Noah rounded the corner and right into the taller girl.

The first thing the young boy saw was the black liquid spilling onto leather boots. His pap had told him stories about the aurors and their love for coffee.
This might be it.
This might be the end of everything he knew.
He might be dead soon, or at least in a state where living wasn’t worth it.

So, Noah kept his eyes firmly on the stained boots so close to his own scruffy trainers that definitely needed replacing.

"Are you alright?" The voice asked. She wasn’t angry or murderous!

Noah’s bright blue eyes shot up to meet…a face of exquisite beauty. Lips parted, mouth hanging open and eyebrows rose as he stared into the face of an angel. A pretty dark haired tall angel.
Why had he bumped into her?
Why had he ruined her drink?
Why was his dad yelling?
Why did Merlin love to torture the Pratts?

The Angel (Flora was it?) cleaned them up and asked if it was his relative hollering at them but Noah could only stare, dumbfounded. No wonder his pap didn’t ever bring them to work, surely, he knew Noah would fall in love in an instant?

“No way!” The Yorkshire boy quickly responded. There was no way he was related to the moron hollering at them across the office. Flora clearly didn’t like that moron.

Behind him, Natasha ran up, grabbing her brother by the arm just as Flora asked if he was called Norman! Noah wrestled his arm free of his sister’s grabbing hands and shook his head. Words really seemed to be evading him.

“Natasha.” Tash held her hand out proudly to Flora the angel and Noah still stared. “And my brother, Norman.”

Fauna tilted her head as the boy seemed struck dumb. No, he wasn't related to the auror hollering his head off? Had Pratt resorted to taking children hostage just to torture his trainees? That went a little too far, even for him.

The boy shook his head again.

"Are you alright?" Fauna repeated, then scanned the hallway for the elusive Head Auror.

"Natasha," Fauna shook the girl's hand, unable to help the amused smile that flickered across her face. So mature and composed! Perhaps these weren't Pratt's children after all.

"Alright then, Natasha. Norman," she nodded at the boy. "I'm Fauna. Should we go find your father?" She said hopefully, glancing in the direction of the Head Auror's office.

"Um, what happened in there?" Curiosity won out.

“Flora!” The holler came again from the Head Auror currently holding his youngest daughter in his arms while the 5-year-old took off, slipping behind his father and running in the opposite direction to Natasha and Noah. Pratt would have loudly sworn if it wasn’t his children that were the ones running rings around him. The boys, just the boys terrorising him. “Flora!”

He’d attracted enough attention by now but not the attention of his semi-acceptable cupboard friendly trainee? Why was she ignoring him? Rude girl.
“Merlin’s balls!” The blond grumbled, deciding Charlie couldn’t go far, he left the doorway to his private office and rounded the corner or cubicles to see Flora, Noah and Natasha. She had ignored him and Noah was staring at her like… well Ed didn’t like it.

“Bloody hell, Noah!” A hand clamped down on the boy’s shoulder and green eyes shot to the 11-year-old girl. “Grab yer little brother, Mous-tash.” The blonde girl nodded, flashed a grin at Flora and ran off.

“I called ye, Blake.” Pratt muttered, frowning at her. “You’ve got a special task today, lass.”

Finally, the man who could only holler one name emerged, spouting foul language in front of his own children. She was not surprised, but shook her head at him.

Noah? She could have sworn that Natasha had said Norman.  Was Pratt unable to remember even his son's name? Fauna gave Noah/Norman a deeply apologetic look, then managed a small smile at Natasha just before the girl ran off. Fauna could picture her last shred of sanity disappearing down the hallway with her.

"Well, I'm standing right here, Pratt," she frowned, biting her tongue to keep the other words from spilling out. She'd been calling him! There was a fresh coffee stain on the floor! Use your Head Auror eyes and ears! If she were ever going to survive training, she wasn't worried so much about getting hexed in the line of duty, but one day mouthing off too much.

Fauna gave him her wariest look, cradling the empty coffee mug in her hands like a mini shield. "Um, what is it?"

Please, to Merlin and Saint Genevieve, please do not say babysitting.

Flora was clearly not enamoured by the prospect of such a special task for the day. Perhaps he wouldn’t honour her with the delight of caring for his children. The transferable skills she would gain from attempting to manage the motley crew of young Pratts were second to none. And yet she looked wary, scared, intimidated. So why the hell was Noah staring at her with a gormless expression as if she were a… Merlin’s beard, he had no idea. But he’d seen that look before, if only he could place it.

Later. He would have to think about that later. For now, he had four children whose day had been ruined by a step mother leaving, a scared looking trainee auror and a job to get on with. In his arms, Brooke had her red face pressed into his neck, sniffing as she self-soothed and slowly recovered from bash to her head.

“Meet yer wards for the day, Flora.” Ed barely managed an encouraging smile. “Noah, me eldest, is about to get back to Hogwarts for his third year. He’ll help.” Noah had his arms crossed, suddenly looking like he was ready for the ground to swallow him up. “This is Brooke,” He removed his hand from Noah’s shoulder and rested it on Brooke’s head of brown curls. “She’s had a bump.” His tone was softer as her twisted his head to get a better look at the girl that didn’t want to let go. “Ye gonna’ say hi?” Brooklynn didn’t budge.

“She’ll warm to ye’.” Green eyes shot back to Blake. “Got a whole day fer it.”

“She’ll love ye.” Noah suddenly piped up, still staring at Flora. Ed couldn’t hide the expression of surprise at his newly teenage son being…not moody.

No, no, no. No way! Fauna's eyes widened. No! She couldn't think it enough. Could she tell the Head Auror to stuff it?  Was this one of his tests? Well, she was having none of it. Even if poor Brooke did look like she needed a hug.

Fauna glanced at Noah with a surprise that unintentionally mirrored Pratt's. The boy's faith in her was sweet, in a way, though she didn't understand how he could have made a decision about her babysitting skills in the first few minutes of spilling coffee on her shoes.

"Pratt," she said in a strained voice, her grip tightening on the mug. "Do you mean that you'd like me to owl someone for you, to take care of your kids for the day? I'll wait with the kids until the babysitter gets here," she smiled encouragingly. "And then I'll get back to the pile of reports you wanted me to fill out on those dementors that spawned earlier in the month," Fauna nodded.

Now, a fantastic skill she had learned in her time at the Ministry was to misunderstand Pratt's directions and change them to suit her. He already thought she was slow. Her confused expression wasn't too different from the expression she wore to hide her annoyance. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes he simply reiterated his instructions.

Please work!

The more Blake spoke, the more Edward found himself wondering if he really could trust her with his favourite four people in the world. She was bloody weird and downright dopey with a ropy grasp of the English language at best. But Noah seemed to like her… Noah seemed to really like her. Daft kid.

“The reports can wait.” The Head Auror stated, brushing off her silly attempt at escaping the honourable task of watching his children, his fantastic but loud children. “Almasy can help. You’ll learn more about each other.” It was with difficulty that Eddie managed to peel himself free of Brooke and lower her to the floor where she only proceeded to grab his leg, holding on tight.

There was, however, not time to sort out that situation because Charlie, the blonde five year old suddenly came hurtling around the corner of the cubicles screaming “I’M THE SNITCH! WEEEEEEEEE! I’M THE SNITCH! BUUZZZZZ” Natasha was right behind him and Ed made no move to follow. Instead he looked up at his staff member.

“Noah gave him a chocolate frog this morning. Enjoy.”

Fauna felt her freedom and peace slipping far, far away as Pratt the prolific child-spawner gave her an assignment that would surely be the death of her. The smile dropped from her face. Why? Why her? And Almasy? If he assumed that she automatically knew how to take care of children because she was female, well, he (and the kids) were going to have a rude awakening.

And if Pratt paid attention to anything at all, he'd know that she and Raine were already friends, and she was going to her slumber party tomorrow night. But that was asking too much of the man who called her Flora.

Before Fauna could say something she would regret, a blond tornado of energy whirled around the corner shrieking about quidditch, a game Fauna didn't even like.

She glared miserably at the Head Auror. "I'm commandeering a conference room."

She glanced down at Brooke, then at Noah. The mini tornado was currently the biggest problem. She needed to corral him first, and try to quiet him down.

"Noah?" Fauna said hesitantly, uncomfortable instructing another person's kid. "Would you mind watching Brooke for just a second while I grab... um.... the snitch?"

Fauna gave Noah an apologetic smile-grimace and then hurried down the corridor, after the younger blond kid.

"Hey!" She whisper-shouted. "Hey, snitch! And, uh, Natasha! The quidditch game is moving to the conference room!"

The tiny tornado paused for just a moment, and then wheeled around her, buzzing and laughing.

"It's this way!" Fauna said desperately.

Natasha circled around her and giggled too, until Fauna was in the eye of the storm.


OOC Note: Aurors! Trainees! Anyone! A little help!

It was only Omari’s fourth day back in the office after his lengthy sabbatical to South Africa, and he was still trying to settle back into the rhythm of Level Two. He loved the place, and had done so since the first day he set foot in there, and it had been nice to see all his colleagues and fellow aurors again, but it still took time to get back into the pace of the bustling headquarters. So Omari had slumbered in later than he normally would, still with a sleepy drunkenness in his eyes.

Since he came back Pratt had mostly given him paperwork to catch up on, since for some reason the head auror thought he needed some time to get back into full power for out-of-the-office-missions. Omari didn’t know why. He had tried to explain to the Head Auror that his trip to Africa hadn’t just been relaxing by a beach, and that he had actually helped out the native aurors with cases, but Pratt had had none of it.

So the morning had started slowly, with a pile of parchments and memos that Omari didn’t feel that inclined on going through. There were reports on dementors (which his mother had updated him on whilst they’ve been away, so he merely glanced over that), on petty thefts, some altercation between two warlocks in Dublin, and a large folder on Ira Almasy. It was the latter that had caught his interest the most.

He was sitting by his cubicle, feet on the table and coffee mug in hand, reading through the report. Almasy. That name sounded strangely familiar. Not because Ira had been known to the Aurors for quite some time, no. He had heard it recently, hadn’t he? Just in the last few days or so. There was someone else-

Suddenly a flurry of blonde hair came running towards him, yelling on top of its lungs about being a snitch. It was one of Ed’s kids. A smile spread across Omari’s lips as he quickly got out of his chair and in one big movement grabbed the boy around the waist and lifted him up over his head.

“A snitch needs to fly, aye?” he asked as the boy hollered with laughter. “Come on then, lad!”

The storm raged as a familiar thump, thump sounded down the aisle, and Omari Warrington, Auror of all things wonderful, swept in and scooped up the tiny tornado.

Just like that, the storm calmed. Natasha continued running in circles around Fauna, but began to slow down.

Fauna, her face already flushed from stress and embarrassment, let out a sigh and looked at Warrington with much gratitude. Ok, he definitely deserved her hero-worship.

"Room 301 might be open?" She called after him, lifting a hand to partially cover her warm cheek.

"Natasha," Fauna lowered her voice, and made as if to catch the girl slowly walking around her. Natasha evaded her, grinning.

"Let's find Brooke and make her a, uh, seeker."

"She's too little!" Natasha declared. "I'm the seeker!"

"Um. We'll decide when we get there!"

Natasha must have taken pity on her, because she followed Fauna to the hall where her other siblings waited. Fauna rounded the corner, afraid that they had vanished and that Pratt might holler at her, but there they were!

"Thanks, Noah," Fauna nodded at the boy. "Warrington has saved the day - I mean, the quidditch game, by carrying your brother."

Fauna knelt in front of the sniffling toddler, trying for a warm smile.

"Hi Brooke, I'm Fauna. Your Da asked me to look after you for the day. We're all headed to a conference room. Is it alright if I pick you up?"

She rose a little bit, and held out her arms, waiting for some sign that the child accepted this. Brooke considered, gnawing on her own hand.

"Nuh-uh!" The toddler cried, latching onto Noah's legs.

Dismay flickered over Fauna's face. She glanced at Natasha and Noah.

"Can she, um, crawl? Or toddle?"

It was going to be a very long journey from the cubicles to the conference room, fraught with dangers like old coffee spills on the carpet, Aurors pushing their chairs back without looking behind them, and filing cabinets within reach of tiny, pudgy little fingers.

Raine was having an early morning nap in her cat form, curled up under a table in one of the lesser used conference rooms on level two. She had come in earlier than was necessary to get a head start on her paperwork, and so nobody really noticed when she disappeared for a break to sneak in whatever sleep had been sacrificed last night. By now most of the Aurors already knew about her animagus form - Carstairs himself had nearly tripped over her, twice before.

But feline ears were unfortunately sensitive, and she was roused from sleep by noises in the corridor outside. What was going on now? Raine rose, stretching languorously with a purr in her throat, and padded out of the room. It didn't look like anything was a matter.

            "...alright if I pick you up?"
"Nuh-uh!"

Fauna's familiar voice drifted down from the bullpen, followed by much younger voices. Children. Oh Merlin. Pratt's children! Raine strode down the hall to where her fellow trainee appeared to be surrounded by the urchins, with Warrington not far behind. Where was Pratt?

Were they babysitting? Before she could speculate any further, a toddler detached itself from a young boy's leg and suddenly lunged at Raine. "Ki'ee!" Brooklynn's pudgy hands closed down on reddish fur and the caracal cat yowled in surprise.

Not pausing to think, Raine quickly transformed, and found herself standing over the little girl clutching at the hem of her robes instead.

"Excuse you! Rude!" she exclaimed with a scowl, glaring at Brooklyn like the poor thing had stepped on her tail. The toddler's eyes widened in shock - were those tears? Oh no. No no, she wasn't going to cry was she? Raine looked up at Fauna in a panic. "What the h-- what's going on?"

That was it, he was moving out as soon as he was 17 and he was never coming back. Before, Noah had been convinced that it was only his father intent on embarrassing him and making his life unbearable. But no, Charlie, Brooke and even Tash wanted to torture him. Flora, the goddess evidently saw him as a little kid and his dad was determined to have her chase the ‘snitch’.

Suddenly Charlie the Snitch came flying around the corner in the arms of a big auror who clearly preferred to have fun than suffer under Edward Pratt’s tyrannical rule.

"Warrington has saved the day - I mean, the quidditch game, by carrying your brother." Flora told Noah who still had his little sister by her hand. Flora even knelt and tried coaxing the whinging toddler into her arms while Noah fought his better judgement to tell her how she really didn’t want Brooklynn Pratt to latch onto her too. The little one had lungs to rival an angry merperson!

"Can she, um, crawl? Or toddle?"

Was Flora serious? Noah stared at her, his love diminishing marginally.
“She’s two.” he responded, convinced that should give more than a clear answer to the question.

Before he could say anything else, there was a cat yowl and suddenly a marginally familiar ginger girl was stood above them, telling his baby sister off.
“Hey!” But it was too late, Natasha was sniffing, twitching her nose and getting ready to cry. This place was worse than home! It was a looney house! Noah bent down and lifted his sister up and she began to wail. Where the hell was his dad?
“How dare you speak to me sister like that you-”
“Noah! Be Nice!” The loud voice was heard from near his office door as Edward Pratt shouted across the office. “You’re personally responsible, Flora!” Then, without further ado, the door for the Head Auror’s office was pushed shut and Noah was left with his two-year-old sister in his arms and the love of his life in front of him along with various other aurors.

“Me pa must hate you.”

Fauna blushed brightly when Noah informed her that Brooke was two years old, sounding so much like his father in that moment that she could feel the waves of disappointment wafting from the Head Auror's office.

When Raine slunk down the hall in caracal cat form, Fauna's spirits lifted, but unfortunately the toddler lunged and the cat yowled, and Raine transformed back into irritated trainee form.

"Raine," she looked at her in surprise as her friend scolded Brooke.

She was about to explain, but the chaos continued, ending with Fauna shooting a glare in the direction of Pratt's office. Personally responsible! Their father, Edward Pratt, was the one who should be responsible!

      “Me pa must hate you.”

"I'm starting to think so," she muttered to Noah, then smiled at him for picking up the two year old, refraining from asking if he could carry the kid to the office. She was done with offensive questions for the moment.

She started down the hall, leading the sorry troops. "Pratt's having me baby- er, watch his kids," she told Raine with a shake of her head. "Not that they aren't cute," she glanced at Natasha with a rueful smile, holding back everything she wished she could say about the situation. "But um, anyway, the really good news is Warrington swooped in and took the loudest child to the conference room already."

Fauna lowered her voice, "If you're busy, Raine, I understand, but I will promise to bring the best cupcakes to the party tomorrow if you help."

She smiled, nudging her arm hopefully. Fauna was already bringing cupcakes. She'd just slave over them more if Raine helped.

Opening the door room 301, she herded the remaining Pratt Brats inside and raised her eyebrows at Warrington, glad to see him in one piece. "Who's winning?"